Taking a page from the National Rifle Association playbook, a new coalition pushing for what leaders term "common sense gun policy" on Friday called on legislators to get on board or risk being swept out of office.

The call to action Friday by Lucia McBath, national spokeswoman for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, echoed an NRA handout that proclaims: "When lawmakers target our freedoms, we target their careers."

McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, was shot in 2012 in Jacksonville, Fla., by a man upset about the loud music coming from the young man's car, acknowledged the NRA has a giant head start. But, she said, change can and will come, slowly but surely, if Americans stand up and demand it.

McBath was among about a half dozen speakers — including some with personal ties to gun violence — at a press conference announcing plans of the new coalition, backed by $50 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The group, Everytown for Gun Safety, wants to take on the NRA in the fight for gun controls, including background checks that organizers said nearly 90 percent of Americans support.

The announcement came as an estimated 70,000 NRA members descended on Indianapolis for the association's annual convention and meeting. An NRA spokesperson directed The Star to a video on its website in which members said they may not have the millions Bloomberg pledged to the coalition, but they have millions of members willing to pitch in $25.

"Let's see," the video concludes, "who crushes who."

NRA members attending the convention Friday also had plenty to say about their critics.

Rick Allison of Denver, who owns a plumbing company, said he was unaware of the protesters and does not think NRA's leadership is radical.

"I just hate giving up any rights," said Allison, wearing a shirt that proclaimed his Life Membership in the NRA. "We just keep giving up and giving up. We do it constantly."

Anti-gun protesters, he said, "are ignorant. They aren't stupid. It's disheartening. But I'll say this: (The protesters) are doing it with their heart instead of their brain."

Mike Bird of Fishers, added: "I'd like to see Ted Nugent running the NRA. THAT would be radical."

At the Everytown for Gun Safety announcement, Shannon Watts of Zionsville, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said the new coalition "will unite us with Mayors Against Illegal Guns so we can channel all the passion of moms, mayors, gun violence survivors, gun owners, faith leaders, and the millions of Americans who support some sensible reforms to our country's weak gun laws into action."

She called on the NRA leadership "to accept what 74 percent of its members — and many attendees here at the convention — already know: sensible, common-sense gun laws, like criminal background checks on gun sales, save lives."

Watts said she believes most NRA members "are good, sensible people, as open to common-sense policies that will save lives as anyone," but the group's leadership has taken the NRA in a radical direction.

"We're not here to challenge the many law-abiding and responsible gun owners gathered here this weekend," Watts said. "In fact, many of us are also responsible gun owners. Rather, we're united here to tell the NRA's leadership and the Washington gun lobby to stop misrepresenting the facts."

A report released today by the coalition titled "Not Your Grandparents' NRA" highlights some positions the NRA has taken. They include, Watts said, "fighting to allow felons and terrorists to buy guns; campaigning to put guns in places like bars where they are at high risk of being misused; and endangering law enforcement and hobbling their efforts to fight gun crime by sabotaging the introduction of proven, innovative gun-tracking technology."

In addition to the report, Watts said the coalition is launching a new television commercial that will air this weekend in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. It is titled "Not Our Words" and includes the faces and voices of gun violence survivors.

"Featured in the ad are Cleopatra and Nathaniel Pendleton, members of the Everytown board, whose daughter Hadiya was murdered in Chicago shortly after she participated in a Presidential inauguration," Watts said. "It also includes survivors from the Virginia Tech school shooting, the Aurora movie theater shooting and many survivors of the every day gun violence that plagues big cities and small towns."

Also Friday, the Gun Truth Project, a gun lobby watchdog, released a report titled "Bang for Their Buck: How Seven-Figure Donations from Clayton Williams Energy Are Driving the NRA to Turn its Back on Sportsmen."

"The NRA has supported road-building on federal lands while receiving millions in corporate donations from Texas-based Clayton Williams Energy Inc, which has no known connection to the gun industry other than the personal enthusiasm of its founder and chairman," according to a statement from the Gun Truth Project.

The statement said NRA's position puts it at odds with many hunting advocates, who want to keep roads and energy company activities out of wilderness areas. Naomi Seligman, director of the Gun Truth Project, said the deals have "all the hallmarks of classic Washington pay-to-play politics."

"It seems likely that the NRA has not informed its members what it is lobbying for in their name," she said. "One of the purposes of this report is to alert them so they can take the appropriate action themselves."

Nick Guroff, communications director of the Boston-based watchdog Corporate Accountability International, said in a statement that Clayton Williams Energy Inc., a publicly traded company, should explain why it has given the NRA at least $2 million.

Friday afternoon, Tim Hildebrant of Zionsville was a man searching — without luck — for a public protest to join. Carrying a hand-lettered sign that said "Ban Guns Kill NRA," Hildebrandt was disappointed to learn there were no organized public protests scheduled until Saturday.

Still, he briefly stood outside the Convention Center holding his lone sign amid a sea of NRA members and supporters.